Weekend Pass
by Cybra
Summary: With the materialization program complete, Jeremy is now free from Lyoko, but XANA has one more trick up its sleeve. Part of the Switch universe.


Weekend Pass  
By Cybra

**Dedication:** To Son-Neko of deviantart. It was your comic "Welcome to Earth" that jumped this fic to the head of the line of writing projects. Thanks for the occasional notes along with _amazing _fanart (!) of this universe. As someone who fangirls your artwork, that's a huge thrill. :)

**A/N:** Originally, I was gonna get out the next "episode" for "Fragments" (Odd fangirls, it's his time to shine). However, my mind kept drifting back to "False Start", especially when I saw the above mentioned comic. There's also a reference to one of my "Asides" (hosted on Lyoko Freakers' Fiction) and a few more to "The Boy in the Computer", but it's not vital you read those to get this.

**Disclaimer:** _Code Lyoko_ belongs to the French.

Lasers bathed the Forest Region in flashes of red. Aside from the buzzing of the fan-turned-deadly-discus, all that could be heard was the sound of weapons' discharge.

Jeremy charged a group of kankrelots, using his hare body's speed and agility to leap aside from a deadly shot at the last minute. He raced between the little creatures as they warmed their lasers and took aim.

"Jeremy, Megatank behind you!" came Aelita's disembodied voice.

He heard the _click-clunk_ of the metallic sphere opening along with the whine as it powered up its attack. As it went off, he leaped away, sensing the panel of deadly light miss his right foot by a hair. Kankrelots exploded as they couldn't move away from the shot in time.

XANA was really pulling out all of the stops. Then again, it most likely knew that the end was nigh.

Rather than a menacing red, the tower glowed a neutral blue, an obvious sign that XANA hadn't activated it. But the reason he and his friends had come wasn't to deactivate the tower and reset time.

Free of the kankrelot swarm, Jeremy shifted back to human and made a break for the tower. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ulrich easily catch up using Super Sprint.

"Everything's ready. Remember, guys: That tower has to stay standing in order to finish the procedure."

"Don't worry, Aelita," Ulrich said. "We'll make it. Just like always."

A pause and then, "Jeremy! Hornets!"

He made a dive into the wall of the tower just as he was hit in the back. Rolling end over end, he barely managed to stop himself before he rolled right off the walkway and into the data stream.

Looking down into the endless pit, the virtual boy took a deep breath. Then the tower suddenly rocked as something outside struck it. He flattened himself, hugging the walkway as best as he could until the shaking stopped.

"I'm in, Aelita. How're things going outside?"

"Bad. Ulrich just got de-virtualized. Yumi and Odd are doing their best, but they're being swarmed."

Rising to his feet, he ran to the center of the lower platform before another hit sent him plummeting into the data stream. The XANA eye on the floor glowed as he allowed a different stream of data to carry him to the upper platform.

Landing, he called, "I'm in position."

"Starting the process."

The data bits that filled the interior of the tower swirled about then jerked as the tower was struck by another blast. The virtual boy held out his arms for balance but felt his feet leave the platform.

He felt the codes as they interacted with his program. For a moment, he felt strangely lighter as if invisible chains had been removed.

'_It's working!'_

Then he felt it: XANA. It attempted to stop the commands, its presence wrapping around him like a death shroud. He gritted his teeth, wanting desperately to fight back but unable to while the materialization program held him.

When he thought he could bear the other AI's suffocating presence no longer, his body broke apart.

* * *

Aelita raced down to the scanner room, Ulrich hot on her heels. Distantly, she heard the alerts that Yumi and Odd had been de-virtualized.

It didn't matter. If her program had succeeded, that was the last time she'd ever hear that sound.

A disoriented pair of Lyoko warriors stumbled out of their respective scanners. All four students turned their attention to the last scanner that whirred loudly.

"Come on…Come on…" She bit her thumbnail, her insides about to explode with anticipation.

Then the doors hissed open to reveal…

…her virtual friend lying limp against the interior of the scanner.

"No…No, no, no!" she screamed, banging a fist against the outside shell of the scanner.

The program had failed. While Jeremy's body had arrived, there was no sign that it functioned.

Kneeling down, she chewed the inside of her cheek as she reached out to touch the bespectacled blond's hair.

"I can't believe it," Ulrich muttered.

"He can't be gone," Odd insisted. "He can't. I mean, c'mon!"

"Odd, maybe you should just—"

Aelita missed the last of Yumi's statement as she saw an eyelid twitch. She gasped and reached out her fingers to his neck, feeling the steady throb of a heartbeat.

The eyelids twitched again and—with seemingly monumental effort—opened. A hand twitched and then began slowly flexing its fingers.

His mouth moved with deliberate slowness as he asked, "Aelita…?"

The pink-haired girl sharply drew in a breath as a smile spread across her face.

"What'd I tell you?" the feline warrior asked. "He was totally fine."

"Yeah, right. You were worried, too," Yumi pointed out.

Slowly, the boy on the floor started to move more and more. He blinked up at his friends before squeezing his eyes shut in a wince.

"What's wrong?" Aelita asked, glancing over him but seeing nothing obviously out of sorts.

"Your world's so…bright." He reopened his eyes and blinked at her. "And much better rendered."

She stood up and reached out her hands to take his. Then she stepped back as she pulled him to his feet for the first time. However, his legs were wobbly and didn't work exactly as anticipated, making him stumble and fall against her with a cry of surprise. He wrapped his arms around her for support and attempted to correct the problem, not seeming to notice the interesting shade of red she was turning.

"Take it easy. Just one step at a time," she told him, voice cracking just a little.

"What's the matter?" Ulrich asked, coming to her rescue to offer a shoulder.

As Jeremy took the offer, Aelita told her friends, "Isn't it obvious? Up until this point, Jeremy's body was virtual. He didn't have to control muscles or anything like that. It's gotta be a huge change."

"Wow. Amazing what you take for granted, huh?" Yumi wondered aloud.

The materialized AI jerked his head this way and that as the sounds of the factory—those having long since become white noise to his friends—drew his attention. "It's amazing."

"Well, it's not much, but it's homey," Odd commented.

"No, I mean, your world is so…_rich_ with data input." Carefully, he pushed off of Ulrich to stand on his own two feet before reaching out again to touch the brunette's sleeve. "I've never been able to receive tactile data from placing my hand against anything before."

Aelita's smile couldn't have gotten any bigger as her friend rubbed the fabric between his fingers, his face lit up in childlike wonder. "Just wait. It's only the beginning."

He turned his attention back to her, the smile on his face giving a much better "thank you" than words could possibly express.

* * *

Ulrich hummed to himself as they slid down a level to XANA's central tower. He was greatly amused by the way Jeremy turned his head this way and that in order to try and identify the source.

At the same time, he couldn't help but marvel at how enthralled the formerly virtual boy had been by something as simple as _touch._ Then again, it must've been like having thick mittens over your hands your entire life: When you finally got to take them off, you couldn't believe what you'd been missing out on the whole time.

It would've driven Ulrich mad.

The elevator doors opened as the black obelisk rose from the floor.

'_See ya later, XANA.'_ A cheery smirk crossed his lips.

They stepped out of the elevator, allowing the doors to shut behind them. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jeremy hesitate.

'_Oh, yeah. That tower also keeps Lyoko up and running and used to keep_him_ going. It's not just "bye-bye, XANA" for him.'_

"Jeremy, would you like to do the honors?" Aelita asked. She hadn't stopped smiling since discovering that the program had worked after all.

"I…I…"

"Maybe_you_ should do it, Aelita," the brunette cut in, sensing a bit of revulsion in the former AI.

The pink-haired girl blinked before it apparently dawned on her, too. She blushed sheepishly and walked over to the main switch.

"Here goes," she said, grasping the handle.

The bespectacled blond shook. Yumi reached out and patted his shoulder.

The elfin warrior lowered the handle, shutting off the power.

With a quiet gasp, Jeremy collapsed to the floor.

"Whoa!" Odd yelled in surprise.

The group clustered around their fallen friend. Instinctively, Ulrich reached out for the other's neck.

He paled and yelled at Aelita, "Turn it back on! Now!"

She was across the room before he finished, jerking the switch upwards. The obelisk whirred as it came back to life.

A heartbeat finally throbbed beneath Ulrich's fingertips.

"Is he okay?" Yumi asked as she helped the brunette pick Jeremy up off the floor.

"He wasn't for a second: He didn't have a pulse."

* * *

Aelita chewed a nail as she watched Jeremy sleep, his head resting on Ulrich's bundled up outer shirt.

XANA did that. There was no other explanation for why the virtual boy would suddenly collapse. They'd been so careful with the materialization program, making sure it would sever all the ties he had to the supercomputer.

"Hey." Yumi sat down beside her. "He'll be okay when he wakes up."

"No, he won't," she moaned, putting her head in her hands. "Why didn't I think to better shield everything?!"

"It was an accident," the older girl insisted. "Nobody could've predicted XANA would create an extra link. It's just a dirty rotten cheater."

"You make it sound like XANA cheated at cards or something." There was a tiny twitch of the lips despite her words.

"You know it would," Odd chimed in from behind. "And I thought Ulrich could be a sore loser!"

"Hey!"

The pink-haired girl rubbed at her eyes. "Thanks, guys."

"That's us: Always glad to help," the feline warrior chirped, buffing his nails against his chest. "So, where do we go from here?"

"I'll need to examine Jeremy when he wakes up. It's the only way to find out what XANA did to bind them together."

"And after that?"

"We work on a way to cut that tie, too. And this time" her hand clenched into a fist "I'm making sure it's better shielded."

* * *

As Jeremy re-opened his eyes, he was startled to realize that he couldn't recall closing them. Also, he had no idea how long he'd been in such a state as he stared up at the ceiling.

Automatically, he mentally reached for the supercomputer's clock but felt unnerved when it wasn't there to access. Neither was the diagnostics interface.

Suddenly, he felt very, _very_ vulnerable.

'_Did I malfunction? If I did, what system caused it? Can it be debugged? How do I do that?!'_

"Jeremy."

Her voice sounded much richer than any microphone had ever picked up for him to hear. He focused in on that to calm himself and turned his head towards her.

She seemed relieved when he responded. He attempted to sit up but became disoriented and nearly bashed his head against the floor.

"It's okay. Take it slow, remember?"

"What happened?" he asked as she helped him upright.

"You fainted when I shutdown the supercomputer." She paused, and he had the feeling she was leaving something out. "We had to turn it back on."

"Just now?"

"No, it was…three hours ago."

He studied her, but it was hard to tell what she was thinking. He wasn't used to all of the details to look for. "Why'd you have to turn the supercomputer back on?"

She was silent for a moment before answering, "Because we had to restart your heart."

His eyes widened. "The materialization program…?"

"No. I think it was XANA. I went over the logs, and there was a sudden drop in power during the transfer."

"That must've been when I felt XANA's presence surround me. It was trying to terminate the program but couldn't get through."

"When it didn't succeed, I think it might've planted a virus in you to keep you bound to Lyoko." Her eyes glanced down at the floor before she continued. "Do you think I could examine you?"

He nodded firmly.

* * *

Yumi was familiar with the sight of Aelita rapping her fingers harshly against the arm of the command chair as she studied the screens of one program or another. She silently wondered when tiny indentations would appear from the piston-like treatment the arm received on a semi-regular basis.

Not that the nervous tick wasn't unwarranted in this case. This had been intended to be their last mission. The fact that they'd hit a rather large snag which would give XANA plenty of time to gather its forces and retaliate harshly was definitely a good time for the Chair Arm Finger Tap.

"Tell us some good news," the Japanese girl begged her Canadian friend as the confusing readouts scrolled over the trio of screens. "Tell us it's a nice quick fix that'll take a few hours tops."

"You want me to lie to you."

"Yes, lying would be real nice right now."

Aelita's fingers rapped the chair arm in three-quarter time. With syrupy sweetness, she said, "Piece of cake. It shouldn't take more than a day or two to fix. Jeremy won't even have to be virtualized again, just step into the scanner and the new code uploaded right into him using the scanning process."

Ulrich crossed his arms. "Okay, now tell us again _without_ the lying part."

The tapping increased to six-eight time. "I can't even see what XANA did. For all I know, there's a long-depreciated group of commands in Jeremy's own programming that it exploited for this purpose. The only way to tell is to reanalyze every line of code, comparing it to the original."

"That doesn't sound so bad," the feline warrior said. "How many are there?"

"About two billion."

Yumi gaped. "Two billion?"

"Yeah."

"I didn't realize how…complicated…Jeremy was."

Aelita stopped rapping the arm, reaching up with that hand to rub her temple. "I think it's a safe bet to say that, aside from XANA, he's the most complex computer program in the world right now. Algorithms control everything from his appearance to his ability to make decisions to his emotions. To simulate humans as closely as Jeremy does, it takes a massive amount of code. Not to mention how robust his code has to be."

"In English?" Odd requested.

Aelita steepled her fingers as her foot tapped the air. "For whatever reason, Jeremy was designed to mimic humans. Which means that for every piece of input he receives, he has to be able to react to it in a human-like manner. But there's a limit to the number of situations that a programmer can prepare his code for: Humans are just too unpredictable. So his code is designed to give a response no matter what the situation even if that response isn't appropriate for the situation."

"Okay, so like if Jeremy were to go to a fast food joint and he had to order, he'd give an order anyway even though he doesn't have what kind of foods he's supposed to like pre-programmed in?"

"Exactly, Odd." The super computer beeped. She leaned forward to tap the key to activate the intercom. "Okay, Jeremy. I think I've got everything."

The feline rubbed his temples while Ulrich whistled at Aelita's explanation.

Yumi looked askance at her younger friend. "So what're you planning to do?"

"I'm going to have the super computer run a comparison and mark any differences between the old and current code. That way, any anomalies that appear will be easier to find."

The elevator opened, and Jeremy walked over to them. He looked over Aelita's shoulder as she started to type commands. Clearly, he knew what she was doing based on what she typed.

The Japanese warrior felt helpless.

* * *

Aelita was aware of her virtual friend shifting uncomfortably behind her sometime later. She glanced back to see Jeremy wasn't even looking at the screen anymore, hand on his stomach and gazing in confusion down at his middle. "Something wrong?"

"I'm not sure," he admitted. "Something…rumbled. And my stomach feels strange."

She blinked.

Then she finally heard the faint gurgling sound.

"Hey! He's hungry!" Odd shouted in delight. "Good thing I brought snacks!"

"Hungry?"

Ulrich grinned. "Odd's natural state."

As the virtual blond stared in confusion, clearly at a loss without his connection to the internet, Aelita laughed and explained, "Hunger is the body's way of letting you know you need to eat in order to get nourishment."

"Oh, I see." Jeremy looked over at the purple-clad boy who dug through his backpack. "And this is Odd's…'natural state'?"

The pink-haired girl couldn't take it anymore. She burst out laughing, Yumi swiftly joining her and leaning against her shoulder. Odd gave a "hmph!" while Ulrich grinned toothily.

"I'm a growing boy! I need to eat!" the feline warrior grouched.

"Keep it up like you have been, and you _will_ be growing," the samurai jibed.

The virtual boy stared at them for a moment longer before shaking his head. Aelita giggled when she heard him mutter under his breath, "I'll never understand humans!"

* * *

After a few snacks and an incident involving heights that gave Ulrich quiet fits, Aelita strolled beside her friend as they meandered their way back towards Kadic. It was late enough that no one was on the streets to see them, so they were in no rush.

Jeremy had his eyes closed in silent ecstasy, drinking in the new sensations of wind in his hair, light chill on his face, and clothing fibers against his fingers. Occasionally, he breathed in extra deeply through his nose, releasing a sigh of contentment as some new scent caught his fancy.

"It feels good to be alive, doesn't it?" she asked softly.

He nodded, opening his eyes and gazing up at the moon. (What a novelty that must've been to him: a light-giving orb in the sky!) "Photographs, audio and video files…they don't do your world justice. And I'm going to be a part of it all. All thanks to you."

Something warm took her hand. She dumbly stared down to see his fingers sliding between hers. She and the others had learned quickly that he liked physical contact with them and with Aelita especially. Still…

She glanced up to see his cheeks burning pink, a look of confusion crossing his features as his free hand reached up to touch his face. Blushing was a mystery to him, and occasionally the blood would rush to his face for reasons he couldn't understand. Aelita wished she'd been able to give him a better explanation about the phenomenon.

"It wasn't just me, you know," she said modestly. "The others helped a lot, too."

He gave a nod to consent the point. "But you helped even before you knew about Lyoko."

She blinked. "I did?"

He slid the fingers of his free hand fitfully through his hair, taking his time as his mind processed the still-new sensation while he clearly thought through what he was going to say. "Yumi told me about her initial misgivings about me. I asked weird questions that were a bit too prying at times. You could've blocked me or claimed I was stalking you." Jeremy squeezed her hand as he gave her a grateful smile. "But you didn't. You just kept talking with me and answering my questions even if it was with a 'that's really personal, and I don't want to talk about it'."

Aelita watched as he tilted his head back to gaze up into the night sky. She could see his disappointment that he couldn't see the stars as clearly as any poets he must've run across in his research on humans described. Still, he didn't look away from the inky blackness.

"For the longest time, I was protecting something I knew next to nothing about," he mused aloud. "To me, there had never been anything but Lyoko, and no one but XANA and I had ever inhabited it. Humans and Earth were like a pretty fairy tale of something bigger." He gave a bitter laugh. "There were some days that I felt sure XANA created everything I managed to see through my Internet link in order to build up false hope.

"But then we started talking, and I knew you couldn't possibly be XANA. You were real, and that meant somewhere there really _was_ an Earth with wonderful, chaotic human beings."

The pink-haired girl could hardly breathe as they stopped in the middle of the empty sidewalk.

He looked away from her. "I sometimes would spy on you through your webcam as you talked to me. I'm sorry."

She hugged him before she even realized she'd made the decision to. "I think if our positions had been switched, I would've done the same thing. I can't imagine living like that." She gave a chuckle. "Y'know, in a way, I'm kinda glad XANA decided to start attacking me."

Jeremy's face turned back to her, stunned. "Why?"

"Because now you don't have to be alone anymore." A smile spread across her features. "And I really wanted to meet you, too."

* * *

Jeremy lie curled up in a sleeping bag on Ulrich and Odd's floor. One arm crossed over the other as he rested his chin on top of them.

"_Y'know, in a way, I'm kinda glad XANA decided to start attacking me."_

"_Why?"_

"_Because now you don't have to be alone anymore. And I really wanted to meet you, too."_

The materialized being glanced up at his sleeping companions. The most awful sound was coming out of Odd's mouth but Ulrich didn't seem to notice. Still, the noise made it hard to reach the virtual boy's restful meditation.

Yet they were here and Aelita wasn't too far away. It made him feel…warm.

He closed his blue eyes, focusing on the sound and feel of the pulsing organ in his chest. That sound he'd long associated with XANA, but tonight he welcomed it.

His mind relaxed. For the first time, Jeremy slept instead of meditating.

* * *

Ulrich flagged down the girls as he, Odd, and Jeremy approached. They were running a bit late. Kiwi had decided to be playful that morning and stole his boxers. Again. (The little mutt seemed to find it amusing to steal underwear.) Also, Jeremy had been dead to the world, caught up in dreams he'd never been able to have before.

"Sorry we're late. I blame Kiwi," the brunette explained, sending a glare to his roommate.

"It was my fault, too." Jeremy sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "I didn't realize how realistic your subconscious imagery could be."

Odd gave a yawn. "Yeah, well, let's get going to breakfast. I'm starving."

Yumi rolled her eyes. "You're always hungry."

"Can't help it!"

The group easily fell in step with one another. A glance out of the corner of Ulrich's eye showed Jeremy looking around at everything while trying to conceal his wonder at it all.

Once they sat down at a table, Aelita asked, "What'd you dream about anyway?"

Jeremy swallowed the sip of hot chocolate he'd been savoring. "It was strange, really. I was running. Either to or away from someone. It was too dark for me to see." He shrugged. "That was it, really."

"So you ran a marathon in your dreams all night?" The feline warrior looked disappointed. "Your first dream, and it's that. What a bummer!"

"Keep it down, Odd," Ulrich hissed.

Yumi crossed her arms. (She'd already eaten at home and just wanted to sit with them.) "Maybe it's because of the whole virus thing."

Jeremy looked confused while Aelita nodded.

"It's a distinct possibility." The pink-haired girl explained to their bewildered friend, "Many people believe that dreams reflect a person's thoughts and state of mind."

"Ah."

"Well, well, well…A newcomer to the weirdo bunch?"

Ulrich groaned as all turned their attention to Sissi. The principal's daughter stood with her hands on her hips.

"I'm Odd's cousin, Jeremy," the virtual boy recited without batting an eyelash. "Who're you?"

The girl ignored him. "Any particular reason you're letting him in? He have to go through some sort of rite of passage or something?"

"Lay off," Yumi snapped. "Like he said, he's Odd's cousin. Of course he's going to hang out with us."

"Hmph." She turned back to the virtual boy while Ulrich's fingers gripped the fork he held with more force than was needed. "Jason, was it?"

"Jeremy" came the polite response. Actual concern crossed his features as he asked, "Are you having some sort of a 404 error?"

"Say what?!"

The number sounded familiar, but the brunette at the table couldn't put his finger on it.

Judging from the way Aelita was gripping her napkin against her mouth as if afraid she was about to forcibly eject whatever it was she'd been chewing, the materialized blond had—intentionally or not—insulted Sissi. She coughed as she finally managed to swallow before she started laughing.

The principal's daughter gave a wordless growl at the confused blond before stalking away with a "Hmph!".

"Jeremy, that was awful!" Aelita laughed.

"I was only concerned about her data retrieval abilities," the virtual being defended himself.

Ulrich held up his hands in the classic "time-out" position. "Aelita, what'd he say to her, anyway?"

"He asked her if she was having a 404 error. That's the error your web browser returns when there isn't a web page to display." She giggled some more while Jeremy held up his hands in the standard "What?" position.

With that information, it all clicked in his mind. Ulrich started laughing, soon joined by Yumi and Odd.

"404 error. I'll have to remember that one!" Odd crowed.

Ulrich slowed his laughing by breaking it up with coughing. However, the confused look on the virtual blond's face before he rolled his eyes almost sent him into another laughing fit.

* * *

Mrs. Mayer gazed out over her class. "All right, everyone. Before we get started today, we have a new student." She smiled over at the bespectacled blond sitting next to the class clown. "Won't you stand up and introduce yourself?"

The boy rose from his seat, looking around the classroom nervously. He swallowed and opened his mouth. "Um…I…"

A few of the girls in the room giggled and cooed at the obviously uncomfortable boy.

The teacher debated simply taking over the introduction since it appeared that she'd only succeeded in alienating the poor boy on his first day. However, Odd came to both of their rescue.

The purple-clad teen rose from his seat. "His name's Jeremy. He's my cousin, and he's very shy."

Both boys sat back down, Jeremy giving a slight sigh of relief.

"Well, Jeremy," Mrs. Mayer said, giving a warm smile in the new boy's direction, "I hope you enjoy Kadic. Now let's begin…"

The rest of the class passed largely without incident. That is if you ignored the five notes she had to confiscate that some of her more flirtatious students had tried to send the bespectacled boy's way.

* * *

"You both are a pair of absolutely useless, laughing hyenas," Aelita raged at a very guilty-looking Ulrich and Odd.

Yumi, who had just walked up on the group, blinked and glanced between them before looking at Jeremy who was making eye contact with nothing but his string beans. She slid into the seat next to the materialized boy. "I give up. What happened?"

"These two comedians—" the Canadian girl jabbed her fork towards the two boys she'd been berating for emphasis "—fell down on the job."

"We only left him alone for a second," the brunette boy groused.

"In case you forgot, Ulrich, a second can change everything." Green eyes glared but appeared agonized at the same time. "It only took XANA a second to infect Jeremy with that virus and bind him to it."

"It was my fault, Aelita," Jeremy defended. "I don't know how, but I must've done something to make Theo mad."

The Japanese girl held her fingers to her lips and whistled before forming her hands into the international "time-out" sign. "Spare a clue for the clueless? What happened with Theo?"

"Theo and I had…Well, it wasn't an argument, per se," Jeremy admitted. "It was more like a threat on his end, and me trying to placate him."

"How'd that work?"

"Not good."

"To make a long story short," Aelita cut in, still glaring at Ulrich and Odd, "before these two could intervene, a whole gaggle of girls ended up jumping to Jeremy's defense."

Yumi's jaw dropped. "Are you serious?"

The scowl deepend, giving the older girl just the answer she needed.

"And these two…?"

"_Laughed the entire time._ Because that's when Theo backed down." Aelita's glare was positively murderous.

Yumi raised an eyebrow and looked at the two boys on top of Aelita's "To Kill" list. All the while, she had to hold in her own laughter lest she end up right below them. Best friend status would not grant her amnesty in this case. Not when the pink-haired girl was already turning into the green-eyed monster thanks to the fact that quite a few girls had looked at Jeremy and seen "I'm shy, sweet, interested more in your mind than in your body, and available" tattooed across his forehead.

Maybe she should invest in a stick. Just start smacking anyone who started looking in his direction. That'd at least give her a permanent spot on Aelita's good list.

"At least Theo'll leave you alone now, Jeremy," the dark-haired girl offered, trying to put a positive spin on the outcome.

The bespectacled blond gave a shaky smile before resuming his staring contest with his string beans.

* * *

There was one major negative consequence of Jeremy going to Earth: It left no one behind to monitor Lyoko.

Across the four sectors, the ground began to pulse. The pulsations were strongest in the glaciers of the Polar Region where, sitting majestically on an icy plateau overlooking the Digital Sea, a tower glowed a brilliant red.

In the factory outside the digital universe, a scanner activated, its doors closed. Then they hissed open to release its occupant.

The kankrelot whirred, getting its bearings, before skittering out of the scanner just in time for the doors to shut again and start the process once more.

* * *

Aelita secretly gloated that she'd managed to slip away with her virtual friend. She made a mental note to get Yumi a box of those chocolates she swore she didn't like but always eyeballed whenever they had a free day in town.

"This is nice," Jeremy said, leaning against one of the park's trees.

"It is," she agreed, standing next to him.

The blond closed his eyes, reaching out to grasp her hand. (She held back her _squeak_ of glee but just barely.) "I'm gonna miss this."

_That_ killed every happy feeling. She stared. "What?"

He looked sideways at her. "When you re-virtualize me. I'm going to miss this."

"I'm not going to do that, Jeremy," she argued. She ignored the way he closed his eyes with a slight sigh. "Not unless we have to deactivate a tower."

"Aelita, as much as I'd love to be here all the time, I _have_ to be on Lyoko."

"Why?" She rubbed her thumb against the back of his hand, watching as he sucked in a breath at the unexpected sensation. "You like that. That data input: touch. You lose it—along with smell and taste—when you go back there. And we lose this closeness when you're there. I mean, we're close, but when you're on Lyoko, it's like there's some kind of invisible wall between you and me."

He looked at her again, conflicting emotions all over his face. "I want to stay here. I don't want to go back."

"So don't," the pink-haired girl said gently. "We'll figure out the antivirus based on that last scan and only go back when a tower needs deactivating. And then we'll run an uploading procedure when we figure out the antivirus."

"But I have to go back."

"Why?"

"Because…" He released her hand and reached out to grasp her arm, his grip gentle but firm. Judging by the desperation in his eyes, he held her like a lifeline but didn't want to hurt her. "Because I want to protect you like you and the others always protected me."

She stared at the materialized blond, confused more than anything else. "Protect me? From what?"

* * *

Jeremy sensed the attack before he heard the familiar whirring gears followed by the lasers warming up. He sprang into action, shoving Aelita backwards, as the shot fired, blasting woodchips and splinters off of the tree while leaving a burn mark. He noticed that he'd landed atop the pink-haired girl when he was halfway through helping her to her feet.

"We've gotta get to the factory," he said.

She nodded her head in agreement, reaching into her pocket for her cell phone. "I'll call the others."

They broke into a run, heading for the manhole cover. He kept one eye on her since she knew the way better than he did. All the while, red laser shots fired about them, taking out bushes, dirt, and trees. One came scarily close to Aelita's hand as she finished dialing and raised the mobile to her ear.

"Yumi, get to the factory. XANA's attacking. It took potshots at Jeremy and me in the park."

"From the sound of it, I'd say kankrelots," Jeremy put in.

"Jeremy says it's probably kankrelots. XANA must've hacked into the materialization program or created its own somehow." She paused. "Right. See you there." She hung up as they stopped by the manhole cover. "She's with Odd and Ulrich. They're taking the gym passage."

The blond slid the cover aside. He waited for her to begin her descent before beginning his own. He reached up to slide the cover back in place. "It seems XANA made my point," he said ruefully.

"I forgot about the pulsations," she said. He heard her feet hit the ground as she dropped the rest of the way down. "The tower scan only locates an activated tower _after_ it's been activated, not _when."_ A glance downward showed her running a hand fitfully through her hair. "I've just been screwing up left and right lately."

He dropped down next to her. Hesitating at first, the materialized AI reached out to give her shoulder a squeeze. At Aelita's startled look, he gave her a smile.

Judging by the way she slowly smiled back, that was the right thing to do.

* * *

The door to the elevator had barely opened when Aelita greeted them with "The tower's in the Polar Region."

"So break out the coats. Got it," Odd said, giving their de facto leader the thumbs up.

Ulrich rolled his eyes. "Anything else?"

"The map showed two Megatanks and three krabes. XANA's feeling frisky today," Aelita noted.

"It's probably in a bad mood," Yumi commented dryly. "I mean, we did flick the power switch."

"Maybe that caused a case of PMS?" the feline warrior joked.

It fell horribly flat.

In fact, it created dead silence.

"I don't even know what that means," Jeremy began, "but I think that to keep the peace, I'll never utter those letters in that particular sequence."

"Not if you expect to live," Ulrich agreed, placing some distance between himself and his fellow fully human male. So much for solidarity.

"Ulrich, can we lock the door tonight?" Odd begged, shrinking away from the scalding look Yumi was throwing his way.

"Can we focus?" Aelita complained. "I swear, sometimes it's like trying to herd cats. Or ADD preschoolers. You guys head on down to the scanners. I'll send you first. Jeremy and I will be right behind you."

"Right." The brunette boy pushed the button. As the door closed, he jerked his thumb in Odd's direction as the dark-haired girl turned her laser-like focus on him. "He said it."

"Oh, thanks a lot!"

* * *

Jeremy didn't remember to bend his knees upon arrival. Instead, he'd automatically done it though why that should be he didn't know. For all intents and purposes, he should've landed flat on his nose. However, he'd gone through the motions as if he'd done it dozens of times.

It made no sense.

"Not bad," Odd congratulated. "You did a lot better than all of us did our first times."

"'Not bad'," Yumi scoffed. "Admit it: He nailed it."

"Thank you," the AI said, accepting the accolades.

The absence of wind unnerved him. Suddenly, being without those three extra data inputs was unacceptable. No wonder Aelita had drawn his attention to them upon her first virtualization.

Yes, he couldn't wait to get reacquainted with Earth.

"You can feel the pulsations," he said. He loathed the sensation. "We're close."

"Let's go then," the samurai said, drawing his sword.

The group broke into a run, the four warriors surrounding him in a diamond formation. Jeremy heard the _shing_ of Yumi drawing her fan and the _chick-chick_ Odd cocking his glove. They were ready, willing, and able to fight and be de-virtualized to get him through the gauntlet again.

Didn't mean that he enjoyed seeing them break apart. True, nothing permanent happened to them, but there was always that moment where it felt like he'd lost them forever. Irrational but an emotion he could never shake.

The Megatanks came rolling to meet them.

"Looks like XANA's not wasting time today," Ulrich noted.

"So it's just the same old thing a little faster. They should be opening up their lasers in three…" Aelita started counting.

Jeremy narrowed his eyes.

"Two…"

"They're not slowing down," he muttered.

In fact, the twin metal balls suddenly picked up speed.

"Dodge 'em!" Ulrich yelled, sprinting to one side.

Jeremy shifted to kangaroo, crouching long enough for Aelita to jump onto his back, and then leaped into the air. He used one of the rolling balls as a springboard to complete the up-and-over maneuver. Yumi took refuge on an icy outcropping while Odd skirted between, his tail missing getting mashed by a few centimeters.

"Everybody okay?" Aelita asked.

"Yeah," Yumi said, sounding a little surprised.

"No problem," Odd answered, somehow completely nonplussed by the experience.

"What? It's not enough to shoot us; now they have to run us over?" Only Ulrich could sound so indignant in the face of danger.

Jeremy gave a snort and shook his large ears. "Based on my past experiences with them, I believe it'll take them almost thirty seconds to stop or turn around on this ice. Pulling that maneuver was risky."

"The lack of friction could've led to one or both of them rolling right into the Digital Sea," Aelita filled in on the others' blank looks. "We're not on one of the narrow paths, but there's still not a lot of room for error on this particular glacier."

Odd glanced back and forth between the AI and the elf before looking at the other two, lifting a hand into the air. "If the science stuff makes your head hurt, raise your hand."

Ulrich raised his hand. Yumi reluctantly followed.

"Philistines," the pink-haired elf grouched.

"If they attempt to make a similar pass, Aelita can successfully take one if not both out," Jeremy added, ignoring the exchange.

He twisted his head a little to see her lean over his neck to smile wickedly out across the glacier where the two "gigantic bowling balls" (as Odd had once tauntingly called them) had finally managed to slow down.

"I see where you're going with this," she said, "and I like your idea."

She slid off his back, and he shifted into a hawk.

Odd started cackling as he ran up beside Aelita. Yumi readjusted her position while Ulrich raced up to them.

"How about we don't get shot?" the samurai suggested.

"I didn't plan on it."

He zoomed towards the Megatanks, Ulrich running beneath him. The twin orbs immediately took notice, spinning about to face the new threat. Mini-XANA eyes appeared on the sides.

"They're going to open!" Jeremy cautioned.

"Let 'em!"

The hawk pulled into a hover in the space between where the two beams crossed. Ulrich zoomed on ahead, avoiding the danger zone and getting in the two Megatanks' personal space bubbles. The metal orbs clammed up and started rolling towards him.

"Here we go!"

Jeremy shifted to falcon and dived towards the rest of their friends as Ulrich picked up speed. He heard the Megatanks rumble across the ice. There was the distinct _tink-tink-tink_ and _tang_ of Laser Arrows and Yumi's fan hitting the shells of the rolling balls of destruction.

Aelita opened her mouth and started to sing. The skeleton of a curved wall appeared. They had only seconds before the ice would form around it.

Ulrich passed through, and then Jeremy. The hawk shifted back into his human self, flipping in mid-air and landing on his feet with well-practiced ease. He slid along the ice before skating to a smooth stop as Ulrich skidded to a stop beside him.

Both turned just in time to see the two Megatanks desperately attempt to slow down as the last of the barrier formed. Only one managed to do so, but it wasn't enough as both became airborne. The first—which hadn't been able to do anything about its speed—sailed over the edge of the glacier. The other fell just short, bounced once, and then fell to its doom. Twin beams of light shot up from the Digital Sea.

"I love it when a plan comes together," Odd cheered, tail swishing back and forth. "Now for the seafood."

"That's a krabe for each of us with Aelita as emergency backup," Yumi agreed as they resumed their run towards the activated tower. "Not so bad. Plus we don't really need to beat them; just distract them long enough for Jeremy to slip by."

"Yeah, but who likes leaving a job half-done?"

The samurai glanced back from where he'd automatically taken the front position to look at the AI. "You think the krabes will have any surprises for us?"

"Possible, but I'm not sure. There isn't much else the krabes would be able to do," Jeremy noted. "They've used their legs to impale opponents and their lasers. They've also used their bottom lasers if you remember."

"Vividly." The brunette's wince was audible.

"There isn't much else XANA can use with the krabes unless it changes them, but then it would be too obvious. Still, I would be on my guard."

As they approached the path leading towards the top of the glacier where their target stood, lasers rained down on them. Jeremy heard the buzz of Yumi's fan as it soared overhead, deflecting some of the attacks.

Without him even consciously acknowledging it, their diamond formation had collapsed into two warriors in front and two in the rear, a necessity since the path up was narrow. And the geisha's position in the back with the elf had given her an excellent view of the deadly red rain pouring down on them.

The feline twisted, firing a few arrows to intercept some of the lasers the fan missed. However, he swore at the _click-click_ of his glove when it refused to fire while the computer ran the Auto-Reload function. Finally, it gave another _click-click_ as the weapon finally cocked, ready for action once more.

"Save 'em," Aelita ordered. "We're almost there."

She then gave a yelp as a krabe got in a lucky shot. The AI glanced worriedly over his shoulder to see her gripping her sparking shoulder.

The first krabe waited for them directly at the top, lifting its forelegs out of the way as the geisha and the samurai attempted to relieve it of those appendages. The pair had to dodge as the bottom iris opened up to release the powerful white beam, the force of which managed to keep the metal monstrosity upright in this awkward position.

Jeremy was next, dodging right, but the leg came down at that second. He smoothly shifted to snake, twisting this more flexible body out of the way and slithering to one side before shifting back to human in a crouch. The krabe was distracted by him, which allowed Odd and Aelita to make their way to the top of the glacier.

"Ulrich, Yumi! You two take the other two krabes. Odd, you take this one!" the pink-haired elf ordered as she ran towards the AI.

The samurai and the geisha both gave lazy salutes before running off towards their two assigned victims which had been waiting as a last line of defense by the tower.

The feline gave a feral grin. "Yay! Sushi!"

The virtual blond blinked as Odd leaped up, sinking his claws into the krabe's shell. The krabe, of course, didn't hold still for this. It bucked and tried to shake its passenger off, forgetting about its original target. All the while, the Lyoko warrior whooped and hollered, having a grand time as he inched his way up onto the krabe's back.

The purple-clad teen's antics would never cease to break dance atop that fine line between incredible bravery and monumental stupidity.

Jeremy glanced up at Aelita who motioned with a limpid hand towards Odd and rolled her eyes before turning towards their destination. As one, they started to run towards the glowing red tower where Yumi and Ulrich seemed to have engaged their two krabes.

Unfortunately, the monsters weren't budging from their spots. Even more unfortunate: there wasn't much room on this part of the glacier to slip past the guards. Which explained a lot about why XANA chose this particular glacier.

"Maybe I could make another path," Aelita suggested.

"They'd see me and shoot me off it in a second. Or shoot the path out from under me. At least, while one of them kept the rest of you harried."

"Flying in would do the same thing."

Jeremy scowled before he brightened, a thought coming to him.

She seemed to think of it, too. She grinned. "Unless…"

* * *

Ulrich looked up to see the hawk soaring up and around.

Unfortunately, so did the krabes.

"Not yet, Jeremy!" he yelled.

The monsters opened fire even as Ulrich and Yumi moved in for the kill. They were blown to pieces by well-executed sword and fan blows.

Jeremy was blown to pieces by the laser shot he couldn't avoid.

"No!"

"Sorry, Ulrich."

Jeremy's voice jerked him out of the "anger" stage of mourning. It took him a second to realize that, no, he was _not_ hallucinating and, yes, Jeremy _was_ flapping up over the edge of the glacier.

"I don't get much practice using digital copies of my shifted forms." The hawk shifted back to human. "XANA would get wise to the trick. So my piloting skills aren't as good as they could be."

Ulrich opened his mouth, shut it, opened it again, then shut it again. Then he jabbed a finger in the tower's direction. "Get in there!"

With a quirky smile, clearly understanding that the samurai was just relieved, he trotted through the side of the tower.

Odd walked up, brushing himself off, while Aelita sauntered up with her best "ha ha!" grin.

"So," the feline asked, "what'd we miss?"

"A certain AI who will go unnamed giving us a heart attack," the geisha said.

"Aelita," the brunette boy began, glaring at the girl he'd addressed, "you and his 'great minds think alike' routine? Sucks. Stop it."

The grin spread to the equivalent of evil cackling as the world was bathed in white.

* * *

As the white light passed, Aelita found them all in her room.

That is, all of them except Jeremy.

Glances at her desk calendar and clock confirmed that they'd been returned to thirty minutes before they'd gone to the factory to materialize the virtual boy. And she held no illusions that because of the jump back in time, the virus would be gone.

Entering the connection sequence to Lyoko didn't even take conscious thought anymore. Instead, she allowed her fingers to do the work as the sensation of four bodies, not five, in the room drove home her failure to do as she'd promised: free her friend from his prison.

The AI appeared in a window on her screen.

Immediately, irrationally, she offered, "We can try again, Jeremy. We still have time this afternoon to materialize you. Maybe not shut down the supercomputer, but—"

"Aelita."

The simple invocation of her name stopped her cold. She tried not to look like a guilty puppy as she gazed at him.

He smiled at her. "We'll get there."

A hand came up to the screen, clearly pressed against one of the screens on Lyoko. He was reaching out to her, to touch her like he'd done numerous times during his brief stay on Earth.

Instinctively, she reached back, not caring if she smudged her screen, that invisible wall between them. "Yeah, we will."


End file.
